Love in its Purest Form
by Lupanaridae
Summary: After the inception, Arthur finally knows how he feels about Ariadne. But because he can't tell her in person, the rest of the team helps him out the best way they know how: by incepting the idea that Arthur loves Ariadne into her mind.
1. The Discovery

**This is my second Inception fanfic (the other was just a one-shot), and I'm really excited about this one. The idea just came to me one day and like Cobb says, ideas are the most resilient parasites, and once they take hold, they are impossible to remove!**

**Any review you would like to leave would be very much appreciated :) I will try to update once a week as my schedule allows and my creativity flows.**

It had been four months since we had successfully performed our first inception. During those months, Cobb had become more and more distant from us, preferring to spend his time with Phillipa and James; something completely understandable under his circumstances. So while Cobb vowed to make up for lost time with his kids, Yusuf, Eames and myself continued to work with other extractors, none of which were the same compared to Cobb. The differences in personality and their general way of doing things was so drastic a change, that after three months, we vowed to work only for Dom and no other extractor. The three of us together tried to convince Cobb to at least go back to doing extractions part-time, for the sake of supporting his two children. He agreed, and once again we were a team. No, a family, and a highly dysfunctional family, at that.

However, you may have noticed that I left out one very important member of our team.

Our favorite architect had decided to go back to her studies and return to dream sharing only when she graduated from the university. For Eames and Yusuf, it was spirit-dampening to know they wouldn't see her again until that time. But for me, It was worse then bitter-sweet. For in the months of her absence, I had come to an unsettling and unnerving revelation; that I had developed a strong fondness for the girl and for her well-being that was nothing short of passionate.

In Laymen's terms, I liked her a lot. Now normally I'm very skilled when it comes to staying focused, as it's one of the qualities required of being a point-man. But ever since the day Cobb brought her to the warehouse and put her under, I became distracted by her beauty. My distractedness was what lead to my big mistake during the inception job, nearly costing all of our lives. Her life... . That thought alone was too bothersome to even consider finishing. So in a way, I was glad that she was out of harms way for the time being. It would give me a peace of mind that I could not otherwise obtain. The other side of that coin, however, was that she was still very much on my mind from the aforementioned revelation, and therefore my hope for peace of mind was quickly abandoned.

Ariadne just happened to be on my mind while I attempted to gather information on Cobb's latest mark, making it virtually impossible to achieve any goal I had set for the day. No matter how hard I tried, it seemed the longer Ariadne was gone, the more I was going to think about her, and the more I think about her, the less I'll get done at work.

And because Cobb was now back on the mend mentally, he was able to play the part of the extractor and the architect for this particular job, which meant one empty seat in the warehouse. I found myself glancing over to that seat a lot the last few weeks.

I closed my eyes for a moment and rubbed them vigorously. I had been staring too long at the computer screen, which had been showing the same internet page for the past fifteen minutes. In that time, I had managed to read the same paragraph too many times to count, and had learned nothing about our mark. I knew that if I didn't pull myself together soon, the others would start noticing and get suspicious.

"Feeling a bit tired, are we?" I groaned inwardly as I recognized the voice of our forger. I guess I had spoken too soon.

"Eames, go away, I'm trying to do research and your distracting me." Eames smiled and chuckled.

"I have the sneaking suspicion that you were already distracted before I walked over here, darling."

I gave nothing away as I glared at him. Eames just kept smirking as he leaned against my desk, watching my face. If there was one person who never needed to know about my being distracted, it was him. And I was determined to keep it that way.

"What are you talking about? I was not distracted; I was simply frustrated that I could not find all of the information I need."

"Arthur, you are a horrible liar. You forget how easily I can read people and their emotions. YOU were distracted!" I rolled my eyes.

"Don't you have someone else to pester and annoy?"

"Not since Ariadne left." I did my best to remain expressionless at that comment, but my attempts did not go unnoticed by Eames. "What's bloody wrong with you, Arthur? Are you hormones out of balance because you've finally hit puberty?" Naturally, Eames had raised his voice, which caught the attention of Cobb and Yusuf.

"Did I hear Eames say something was wrong with you, Arthur?" asked Yusuf.

"Yeah, are you okay, man?" Cobb asked ready to stand up from his desk. I shook my head.

"No, really I'm fine; Eames is overreacting."

"Arthur," interrupted Eames, "you really haven't been yourself lately, and I'm determined to find out what or who the culprit is."

"That's really not necessary..." I tried to say, but Eames was no longer listening to me. I turned to Cobb, hoping he could settle Eames. But when Cobb met my gaze, he sighed.

"I hate to say it, but he's right. You haven't really been the same since the inception, and I can't risk loosing anymore lives in limbo on this job." I sighed at Cobb's words. As much as I knew he was right, it was still upsetting for him to go against me.

"If only Ariadne were here to help us." mused Yusuf in a whisper to Cobb, "she had such a skill for reading people that she would be able to figure out what is wrong with Arthur.

In the next moment, Eames turned to me and grinned meticulously. When I saw that his eyes were gleaming and full of mischief, I just knew he had figured it out.

"Eames don't you even-"

"Gentlemen," he began, cutting me off mid-sentence, "I believe I have found the cause for our dear Arthur's demise!" Yusuf and Cobb turned to him expectantly.

"Well, what is it?" Cobb asked impatiently.

"First, let's think back to how Arthur was before the inception job began. As we all know, he was very much a stick-in-the-mud, and was unable to handle any sort of teasing or prank whatsoever. Need I remind you all about the incident with the USB ghost typer?"

I clenched my fists to keep from lashing out; the event Eames was referring to was a very embarrassing and unwanted memory. Fortunately I had no time to dwell on the flashbacks, for Eames continued speaking.

"Now during the inception job, he had somehow managed to control himself, and actually _ignore_ my wonderful teases and disses at his personal life. Very uncharacteristic of our Arthur, is it not?" Yusuf and Cobb nodded. "So that can only mean that some time between the inception job and now, something, or some_one_, has caused our Arthur to act this way. So then, what was a change between the inception job and a regular extraction?"

"Could the side-effects of the sedative be accountable?" asked Yusuf. To my dismay, Eames shook his head. It seemed that no amount of glaring from me was going to keep him from telling them the truth.

"If that were the case, then we would have all been affected. But at this point, Arthur is the only one who is different. My theory is something that has actually been spoken of before, and yet has been overlooked completely. Something that, now that he has been exposed to it, is eating away at him and he cannot stop it, for even he himself does not know it has happened."

"Come on, Eames, we don't have all day. Get to the point." Cobb said, obviously exasperated by the tone in his voice. I continued to stare at Eames with hateful eyes, an ounce of me hoping that he would be wrong in his guess. Eames grinned again before continuing.

"Arthur, our ever withdrawn point-man, is in love."

Brief moment of silence.

"That's it, I don't have to sit here and take this anymore."

I stood up and walked right for the door, grabbing my coat as I reached for the handle. When I was safely outside (and with the wall between myself and Eames), I let out the breath I had been keeping in my lungs. I heard Cobb yelling something to Eames, but could not make it out (although part of it sounded like cursing), and didn't particularly want to. I didn't even want to think about the words Eames had just spilled to Cobb. I tried to calm myself so that I could be civilized about the situation, but I couldn't. And what made everything that much more serious was the fact that Eames was right.

I didn't flinch as the door to the workshop opened and footsteps approached me. And I didn't even look up as the person cleared their throat to let me know they were there.

"Why don't you come back into the shop?" said Cobb in a calm voice. "If Eames does anything stupid like that again, I promise to kill him for you." I forced a chuckle.

"That won't be necessary, Cobb."

"Of course it is, your my friend." He smiled, but after a moment the smile faded. "Arthur, what Eames said about you and Ariadne...he was telling the truth, wasn't he?" I cringed, and didn't need to guess how he had put all the pieces together.

"...yes." I replied, getting even more nervous. Cobb's face fell, and he studied me carefully.

"Does she know?" was his next question.

"Know what?"

"How you feel, of course." I shook my head no. "So you haven't told her?"

"I haven't even talked to her."

"Do you plan on telling her?" The way he asked the question made me hesitate, and now I was the one having to study his face.

"Cobb, you know I can't do that. Ever since..."

"Yeah, I know." Cobb stopped me, holding up his hand, knowing what I was referring to.

"I just don't think I could go through that a second time." Cobb nodded in understanding, not meeting my eyes. Finally he looked up, and stepped forward.

"You were the one who helped me win Mal over, and I was never able to return the favor. So now I'm going to help you win Ariadne's heart. And while I'm 99.999% sure that Ariadne is NOT like that person, you will never have to go through that experience again." I looked at Cobb with eyes that expressed excitement and hope.

"You would really help me do that?"

"Of course I would, Arthur." Cobb proceeded to give me a hug that lasted several seconds.

"Thank you, Cobb, but how exactly do you plan on accomplishing this?" Cobb just smiled.

"By inception, of course."


	2. The Plan

**I can't actually believe I got this done in less than a week. Life has decided to throw me several curve-balls, all of which I had strikes... . Anyway, enjoy the next chapter!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inception because if I did, I would not be writing fanfiction for it; I would be basking in its awesomeness and bragging about how I wrote it, which I sadly didn't.**

Admittedly, I was a bit nervous at the prospect of performing an inception on Ariadne. After all there was a great risk of her finding out, and an even greater risk of her completely rejecting my affection (which scared me the most), nonetheless the multiple other risks that come with inceptions and extractions. But Cobb reassured me that everything would go smoothly, and I believed him. So I went along with the idea. After all, it wasn't as if I was forcing her to love me; the idea was to imply that I did, and hopefully she would have mutual feelings.

When Cobb explained the idea to Yusuf and Eames, there were mixed responses. Yusuf was happy in an uncharacteristic way, going on and on about how 'cute' it all was and how Ariadne and I were 'so cute together as a couple'. There were a few other mushy things he had said, which I will leave out for my own dignity.

Now Eames, on the other hand, was a different kind of happy. He just smiled and smirked, knowing full well that his original guess had been correct. This just gave him all the more reason to be Eames and annoy me to the point of steam coming out of my ears. And when we sat down to discuss plans for the dream, he refused to stop.

"Now we must make sure that we have everything planned out this time." Cobb started. "This is Ariadne we're talking about, a person who is already familiar with dream sharing and the like. But fortunately, she never had subconscious training, and therefore the security will be minimal if we stumble across any." Yusuf raised his hand.

"But won't she still be suspicious when we all show up in her dreams?"

"Yes she would, which is why Arthur is the only one she'll be seeing." replied Cobb. I noticed Eames smirking again and gave me a look.

"I'm sure Arthur won't have a problem with that, will you?" I gave him my best scowl, which didn't do a thing to help. Yusuf slapped Eames in the arm, which caused Eames to start pouting and myself to chuckle. "What was that for?" Eames yelled.

"Be nice, Eames!" Yusuf scolded, "Young love is a beautiful thing, and obviously something you know nothing about." Eames wasn't expecting that, judging by the look of surprise on his face.

"Oh, like you know more than me when it comes to women? I seriously doubt that, darling." Cobb cleared his throat, trying to restore order. I still had to chuckle at their little argument; its not everyday you see Eames frustrated like that, and I only wish I had had a camera to save the moment.

The discussion over Ariadne's inception continued over the next couple of days. The part that took the longest to decide was how to approach the subconscious on love. Just like the Fisher job, the idea must be presented in the simplest form possible in order for it to take hold. As every human being on the planet can tell you, love is not simple and has many different forms. I think we spent a full day just on this one part of the plan.

"Because of the risk of Ariadne discovering us, we will be doing three separate dreams, and only one level each." Cobb lectured.

"That sounds pretty simple." I commented.

"Now," Cobb continued, "does anyone have any suggestions on how to approach the subject of love to Ariadne? Remember, it has to be as simple as possible."

"I think the first dream should be something light" suggested Yusuf. "Something that won't cause her to suspect anything for the rest of the dreams. And for the last two dreams, put her in a situation that will cause her to evaluate her relationship with Arthur." Cobb nodded approvingly.

"Good idea, Yusuf. I especially like the idea of a dream to set the stage for the more important ones."

"Will we be able to achieve inception with only three dreams that are spread so far apart?" I asked, still seriously doubting the operation myself.

"It would be just the same as a 3-leveled dream, I would think." Eames answered. For the moment, he had decided to concentrate on work instead of tormenting me.

"Any suggestions at all?" Cobb asked again, trying to get back on topic. Eames raised his hand.

"Why can't one of the dreams focus on why Arthur hasn't told her in the past? After all, this has probably been going on for a while." I gave Cobb a look that was similar to the one I gave him before in answer to his question 'do you plan on telling her?'. Cobb was apparently reading my mind, and analyzing the best way to handle it.

"It _would_ be a good idea, Arthur," Cobb started, and when I opened my mouth to interject he held up his hand, "_but_ you do _not_ have to tell her the truth. In fact, I think it would be best not to tell her the truth at all, for future safety." I nodded, and Eames glanced with uncertainty between Cobb and I, sensing he had brought up a sensitive topic.

"And Eames, don't even bother asking me, because I am not speaking of it anymore, got it?" I gave Eames my best stern look and he nodded. Smart move by him for once. I guess he figured he was in dangerously deep waters, because he was.

"I had a thought for a possible dream scenario." Yusuf spoke hesitantly, also sensing all the tension in the room. "When a person is in love, they tend to do what appear to be ordinary or expected actions, if you will, when in reality they have a duel meaning that may not be so clear to the one on the receiving end, causing angst and frustration to the lover themselves."

"What exactly are you getting at?" Cobb mused, who had been carefully listening to Yusuf proposal.

"What I'm saying is that Arthur has probably done something to that affect. To Ariadne, it may have been just a kind or considerate gesture, but in reality Arthur was attempting to show his true feelings. I propose we bring up a significant event and attempt to show her Arthur's true motives or feelings behind the action.

Cobb was pretty surprised at the great idea (actually all of them) that Yusuf had. I even thought it was very well thought-out. Either the man really knew that much about love, or he stayed up late at night thinking about it. I personally thought the latter was more probable.

"The only problem I see with that is that I don't think we have any examples broad and specific enough to go by for the dream. It wouldn't be solid enough if had to use fake memories."

I couldn't help but think that Cobb was wrong in that instance. There was that one moment Ariadne and I shared which fit Yusuf's description fairly well, I thought: the moment in the second level of the inception where I had tricked her into kissing me to 'ward off projections'. I smiled to myself as I remembered how soft her lips were for those brief seconds.

"What are you smiling about?" Eames questioned. I silently cursed, wishing that my smile hadn't been that noticeable. "There IS something, isn't there?" Eames practically shouted, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Well, there was this one time..." I started nervously.

"Come on, out with it!" urged Eames impatiently.

"It was during the Fisher job on the second dream level. While Cobb was pretending to be Mr. Charles, the projections were, uh, attempting to look for me, the dreamer. And so I, uh, told Ariadne we needed a distraction, and I... uh... got her to kiss me."

All three pairs of eyes grew to be the size of golf balls. And suddenly Eames burst out laughing.

"You've got to be lying Arthur!"

"Do I look like I'm lying?" I asked with all seriousness. Even Cobb looked surprised.

"Wow, Arthur, I'm impressed. What exactly did you say to get her to kiss you?" I shrugged.

"Well, when the projections were looking for me, I just said 'quick, give me a kiss' and after she said 'their still looking at us', and I replied 'yeah, it was worth a shot'." At that Eames looked even more surprised.

"Wait, you were actually telling the truth?" Then he started laughing again, falling into a fit of hysteria. Cobb and Yusuf just ignored him.

"Pretty smooth move for you, Arthur." Cobb observed.

"I agree with Cobb," said Yusuf, "but it was a very... Arthur thing to do, really. It's fitting for you." He smiled reassuringly at me and winked. I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that, but went along with it anyway.

We talked for a few more hours to work out the rest of the plans for the inception. Overall, I felt that this was something we could achieve, and my inward most hope of Ariadne's feelings being the same towards me was slowly starting to become a reality. When it was about six o'clock that evening, we had a good rough draft of a plan laid out. In fact, we had gotten so much figured out that Cobb hoped to give the first dream as soon as the dream layouts were complete (he was going to build them himself). There was only one last thing to do for the night.

"Who's going to be the one to call our dear Ariadne?" asked Eames.

"I'll be the one to do it." replied Cobb. While Eames looked like he wanted to argue the point, he kept his mouth shut. "If you guys would like, I'll put her on speaker, but you have to keep quiet, okay?" Cobb then dialed her number, which was already programed into his cell phone. After a few rings, her quite voice rang through the speakers.

"_Hello?"_

"Hello, Ariadne."

"_Cobb, is that really you?"_ She practically yelled. The surprise in her voice was evident when she apparently dropped something on the floor in shock.

"Yes, it's really me. And your on speakerphone, so say hello to the rest of the team."

"_Hi everybody!"_ she called through the phone. We all replied in unison.

"Why hello there, darling." Eames smirked. "Have you missed your favorite forger in the whole wide world?"

"_Boy, did I ever!"_ she replied, _"I've missed all of you guys so much!"_

"Listen, Ariadne," Cobb said, getting back to the reason for calling, "I've got another job lined up and I'm looking for an architect. Are you available to help us out?" there was a slight hesitation on the other end of the line.

"_Cobb, you know I've been trying to focus on my studies. I said I wouldn't go into anymore dreams – no matter how tempting they may be – until I graduate."_

"I know, but you don't even have to come into the dream with us. We just need two levels designed and your the best architect I know. And besides, its April, and almost the end of the school year." Ariadne wasn't swaying at all, which was a huge flaw in our plan. Cobb sighed. "What if you just came down on Saturday and Sunday? The job would be easy for you, and you should be able to get it done in those two days without much trouble. You would get to see the team, and we get invited to your graduation. Everybody wins!" Ariadne laughed and then fell silent again for a moment.

"_Okay, Cobb, you win. I'll come and see what you want me to do."_

"Great! I'll send one of the guys to your apartment and pick you up on Saturday."

"_Alright, see you guys then!"_

"Alright, bye, and thanks again." The line disconnected, and we all let out a breath of relief. She had agreed to come down, and I was going to see her again.

"Phase one, complete." joked Yusuf. I laughed, but inside I knew that I was going to have a hard time waiting for Saturday to come.

**Yay, she agreed to come! Although I'm not quite sure I was in character the entire time... what do you guys think?**

**And also, did this explain some of the confusion I found with some of the reviews? Some of you were wondering how this would all work without her knowing, and I hope this cleared up a little bit of it. If not, let me know and I can try and incorporate it into the next chapter.**


	3. The Reunion

**Tried to upload this Sunday night, but Fanfiction was doing weird stuff and wouldn't let me log in. So here you go, and expect the next one either Friday or sometime this coming weekend.**

As I expected, the next few days went by at a snail's pace. We continued to work on the original extraction job that Cobb had hired us for, and only briefly discussing the inception of Ariadne. As the hours dragged on, I became more and more nervous about seeing her again. And at the same time, I was excited about it. As you can imagine, I was bursting with energy when she walked in the door with Eames, who had been the lucky you-know-what to pick her up.

"Gentlemen, our lovely architect has finally returned!" Eames announced in a loud voice. He sent me a sadistic grin which, to me, meant that he had planned that trick ever since he left the workshop.

I made a mental note to kill him for that later.

Ariadne gave Cobb a huge bear hug, at which he chuckled hugged her back just as a friend would. Next she gave Yusuf a friendly hug, one not quite as forceful as the one Cobb received. When she saw me, she appeared calm, and her face lit up. Then she gave me one of those perfect smiles that made me weak in the knees.

"It's great to see you, Arthur." she said as she hugged me. I chuckled nervously (the guys were still watching me) and wrapped my arms around her.

"Good to have you back again, Ariadne." I tried to speak as indifferently as possible, but my tone still came across as relieved and maybe a bit love-struck.

Cobb proceeded to fill her in on the "extraction" job we were doing, while the rest of us attempted to work on our own specific jobs. However I had a hard time not glancing over at Ariadne's workstation every so often just to watch her work. I could have sworn that I had never seen anyone as cute as her when she was deep in concentration. The way her eyebrows crinkled together – heck just about everything about her – made me want to walk over there and just kiss her. But I knew the second I went to stand up, that some unknown fore would make me want to sit back in my chair, behind the cover of my desk.

So I stayed seated like the scared fool I was.

As the day slowly came to an end, the team headed home one by one. Eames was the first to leave (not surprising there), followed a short time later by Yusuf. Cobb waited a bit longer before asking Ariadne if she needed a ride.

"Yes, I do, actually." she admitted.

"Well, I was planning on staying late tonight..."Cobb turned to me, giving me the signal.

"I can give you a ride, Ariadne."

"Really?"

"Yeah, its no problem. In fact I can take you home now, if you'd like."

"That would be great." She quickly gathered up her things while Cobb gave me a rare grin. In all the years we'd known each other, Cobb had never really known me to be this smitten for a woman before. In fact, only once had I ever even mentioned a girl to him that I found attractive. So he, like Eames, decided he had to tease me about Ariadne (but at least Cobb's teasing was more tolerable than Eames').

Once she had her things in order, we said our goodbyes to Cobb and left the workshop. Once we were in the car, I was almost able to relax.

"So how are your studies going at the college?" I asked, starting up a conversation.

"I'm doing alright, making good grades and everything, but its not the same as dreaming." I gave a look saying I understood completely.

"It really is pure creation, isn't it?" I caught her off guard with that comment, but she eventually nodded.

"Cobb seems different now that he's back to his kids." I nodded.

"Yes, he's changed a bit since the inception. It took several months before we could even convince him to come back to doing extractions again. In the meantime, Eames, Yusuf and I tried working for other extractors." she smiled.

"And how did that go?"

"I've vowed to only work for Cobb as long as I'm in this business." that made her laugh.

"What about Eames and Yusuf?" It took me a moment to process that the emotion in her voice was one of worry. I quickly changed that.

"Their not going anywhere, Ariadne. We're a team, and its always going to be that way." Her smile returned, and I swear my heart skipped a beat. I turned on the CD player, which immediately starting playing my favorite Michael Buble mix disk. Ariadne's jaw dropped.

"You listen to Michael Buble?" I laughed.

"Ah, so you've heard of him, too, I assume?" She had a look of disbelief on her face.

"Heard if him? He's one of my favorites!" I turned to her with my own jaw nearly reaching the floor.

"Now why would you keep such an important fact from me? I'm a point-man after all, and I need to know these things." She laughed and just turned up the volume on _Save The Last Dance for Me._

I had to admit, I never figured her for a Michael Buble fan. It was just one more reason to love her more, I suppose. When I pulled up outside of her apartment, the song had changed to _Haven't Met You Yet_, to which Ariadne was happily singing along to, but stopped when she saw we had stopped.

"How did you know where I live?" she asked confused.

"As I said before, I'm a point-man; I have to know these things." she sighed and we got out of the car. I walked her through the apartment complex – because I'm a gentleman like that – and stopped once we arrived at her door.

"This is the one." she said pointing. "Do you want to come in for a drink or something before you go?" As much as I wanted to say yes, I knew I shouldn't.

"Sorry, not tonight. Can I take a rain-check?" she smiled.

"Sure, I guess you can, but just this once." She wrapped her arms around me again. "It was great seeing you again, Arthur." I felt my heart racing at her closeness, but managed to remember how to use my arms to hug her back.

"I've had no company except Eames since you left, and you know how much we just love being stuck together." She cringed a little, knowing what I meant.

"Well, I'll let you get home. See you at work tomorrow." Giving me one last quick hug, she opened the door to her apartment.

"See you tomorrow, Ariadne." I called after her. Once the door was closed I said, "or rather, tonight."


	4. The Drunk

**Terribly sorry for not updating on Monday like I promised. Life keeps getting in the way, and frankly, I wanted this chapter to be perfect. Hope it was worth the wait!**

It was around midnight when Eames, Cobb, and Yusuf arrived at my apartment to pick me up. I hadn't been able to sleep anyway, and had been pacing around my room thinking about what we were planning to do. It was unnerving me to think that we were about to perform inception on Ariadne. Just thinking about her in general made my stomach queasy, and the added pressure of a job was making it even worse.

Finally the glow of headlights from Cobb's car shown through the window of my room, and I couldn't have been more relieved. I quickly ran out to meet him.

"Get any sleep, darling?" Eames smirked as I got in.

"Not a wink." I replied, not missing a beat. I had already decided that Eames was to be ignored as much as possible, but obviously that wasn't happening. Eames said something else, but I was too zoned out to hear him.

The rest of the drive to Ariadne's apartment was spent going over the plans. For this first dream, I would try to put her subconscious at ease in an attempt to make the next dreams a bit safer. To accomplish this, we had decided on an environment that was inviting, but not too conspicuous (which you will know soon enough).

"Please tell me you didn't pick anything too embarrassing, Eames." I pleaded as we pulled up outside the apartment complex.

"Darling, I may be eccentric, but I have excellent taste in music."

"I highly doubt that." I mumbled under my breath, getting out of the car.

"Don't worry," said Cobb in a whisper, "I made sure it was an appropriate choice." He smiled mischievously and I was forced to roll my eyes. His teasing was beginning to get old, but I was nonetheless thankful for his reassurance.

We walked into the building without saying a word, and I lead then all to her room. Once we got there, Eames began to pick skillfully at the lock trying to open the door. Things were silent for a few moments.

"Why are so worried about a bloody song anyway?" he asked in a loud whisper.

"Because you are the last person on the planet I would ask relationship advice from, and I don't want you to ruin this!" I sneered in his face. Cobb shook his head and Eames chortled.

"You have no idea, darling."

He unlocked the door and the four of us entered as soundlessly as we could. We worked softly and quietly, fearing that any noise - no matter how quiet - would instantly cause Ariadne to wake. Once the PASIV was in place, the hardest part was inserting the needle into a sleeping Ariadne. All the while, I couldn't help but notice how adorable she looked when she slept.

"Okay, Arthur," said Cobb, "let's see your wrist." I held out my hand and he inserted the needle. Just as Cobb was inserting a needle into his wrist, Eames gave one last smirk.

"I hope you appreciate what we're doing for you, Arthur." he whispered and inserted his own needle. But before I had the chance to reply, Yusuf pressed the button and the three of us fell asleep on the floor.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was standing in the middle of a bar which was full of projections. I found myself wearing an even fancier suit than I usually do, along with a bow tie (thank you very much to Cobb and Eames). I made my way to the bar, noticing that it was set inside a hotel, just like Cobb had planned out. When I was a few steps away, I spotted Ariadne, and my heart skipped a beat. She was sitting alone, looking a bit dazed. Swallowing any last minute nerves, I walked over and sat down next to her on her left side.

"Can I buy you a drink?" I asked smoothly. She turned to me surprised.

"Uh... that's okay, I can pay." She reached for her wallet but I grabbed her hand, which I noticed were very soft, even in the dream world.

"It's no trouble, Ariadne." I pulled out my own wallet and payed for her tab whilst ordering myself a drink. The bartender was a pretty blonde, who was wearing way too much makeup and skimpy clothing. When I handed her Ariadne's tab and ordered a drink, the smile she gave me had a very familiar feel to it.

"Be back in a moment, darling." As soon as the words left her mouth she gave me a wink, and I knew instantly who she really was. I had to fight to keep myself from showing any signs of recognition in front of Ariadne, though.

"You really didn't have to do that, but thanks." she smiled shyly, which I returned with one of my own.

"Your very welcome." I replied, my voice sounding a bit strained in my efforts to keep things under control. The blonde soon returned with my drink, glancing between me and Ariadne.

"So nice of you to pay for your girlfriend's tab." she remarked. Ariadne nearly fell off the stool.

"What? No, no he's not my boyfriend." she said with a blush. I was pretty sure my face was red too.

"Yeah, we're just friends." I added. Glaring at the woman, who just shrugged.

"Could have fooled me. You two are absolutely adorable together anyway." I saw Ariadne cover her face in embarrassment. The bartender glanced at her watch. "Well, time for me to clock outta this joint. See you two around, alright?" neither of us returned any sort of goodbye as she grabbed her coat and walked out of the hotel. The two of us sat in silence for about a minute.

"Well, that was strange, wasn't it?" I said lightheartedly. She mumbled something I couldn't understand. "Are you okay?" her head shot up.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I just zoned out for a moment."

Just then the doors to the bar opened again, and an obviously drunk man walked in. He was pretty good-looking as far as guys go, but was stumbling so much that I wondered how he had even managed to get here without killing himself. The man walked up and sat a few seats down from Ariadne on the other side.

"It it just me, or is he staring at me?" she asked a few minutes later. I discretely looked over towards the man, who was indeed staring her down with a look of want in his eyes. I unconsciously clenched my fist.

"He's staring at you, just don't even look at him." I warned. The man seemed to notice this, and he began to yell loud enough for the entire place to hear.

"Hey cutie, why don't you come on over here and we can have a little talk?" Next to me, I felt Ariadne tense up, and projections giving us weird looks.

"Don't answer him." I said calmly. She gave a nod, but was still shaking with fear. The man got annoyed when Ariadne didn't answer.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" I placed a hand on her shoulder, and she still said nothing. I could tell she was scared, but was trying hard not to show it. Finally the man stood up and made his way over to us. I stood up at the same time Ariadne did, and gently pushed her behind me, using myself as a human barrier between her and the creep approaching us.

"What do you want?" I asked in an even but firm tone.

"Why are you taking up for her?" he spat back at me. "I just wanna have a little fun, and your in my way, so move it." I stood still, not budging an inch. "Oh yeah, you wanna do this the hard way, then, do ya?"

"Just leave now, and no one will get hurt." I warned. I felt Ariadne's hand on my upper arm, silently begging me to stop. I tried not to think about her touch and how it made my skin tingle, but I failed. The only thing that brought me back to the present was the man in front of me as he began to laugh hysterically at my words. I could smell the alcohol on his breath, and as he gulped down another shot, he turned back to me with a strangely familiar gleam of mischief in his eyes.

"Bring it on, hotshot!"

He clenched his left hand into a fist and took a swing at me, which I easily missed for two reasons; one, because he was drunk and therefore his perception was off, and two, because I was already expecting it. As I easily dodged his pathetic punch, I sent one of my own flying into his face. Ariadne gasped behind me as the drunken pervert fell to the floor. He started to crawl backwards to his seat, his hand clutching his nose and face where my fist had hit. As he slowly got to his feet – never taking his eyes off me – he gave me five final words.

"This night isn't over yet." That was the cue.

"We'll just see about that." I replied, and putting my arms around Ariadne, I steered us away from the bar, and a bit closer to the dance floor. Once we were a safe distance away, I turned to her. "Well, that was quite exciting, wasn't it?" she gave me a look.

"You call that exciting? Arthur, you could have killed that guy! Or he could have killed you!"

The look in her eyes as she spoke gave off the emotion of fear, but was quickly hidden behind her normal, care-free self. I refused to ponder what that meant, for at that time, I noticed that the music grew louder and started playing the song that Eames and Cobb had picked out. I recognized it as a something that would be found on a classic rock station, but had a bit of a Spanish sound to it. I turned back to Ariadne and gave her my most charming smile.

"Shall we dance?" She gave me another confused look, but I could see the gears in her head whirling around trying to decipher why the heck I would ask her to dance. But when I held my hand out, she placed hers in mind, and I lead her to the dance floor.

**So, what do you think? Too OOC? Perfect? REVIEW PLEASE!**

**Props if you can guess what the song is =) *hinthint* (I will revile it later anyway, but guess if you want!) **


	5. The Dance

**I was able to finish this last night when we had to go to the storm shelter We had really bad weather and danger of tornadoes! Stayed in the shelter for about 3 HOURS. So yeah, anyway, enjoy!**

Admittedly, I'm not very good when it comes to dancing, but for the job at hand - and the possibility of winning Ariadne's heart - I had decided to improve my skills. Because I had no idea what kind of song Eames was going to pick, I made him tell me at least what kind of dancing I needed to learn. He and Cobb both told me that a cha-cha or maybe tango would be good, which I rolled my eyes at but tried to learn anyway.

Unfortunately, the song I heard as I walked Ariadne to the dance floor wasn't right for the dances I had learned. So I was forced to improvise, which made me even more nervous. Ariadne was a bit on edge as well, so I had to at least pretend I was being calm and collected so as not to blow this one chance.

My feet found a comfortable rhythm, to which Ariadne followed as best she could. Even so, she was still uptight and tense from the earlier incident. I stayed with this same rhythm for a while until we got started. Then I gradually tried to incorporate some cha-cha into the dance. At first Ariadne was surprised - I'm assuming at my dancing - and then she began to relax and followed my lead easily. It appeared that she was a good dancer as well, improvising herself at times.

The more loose she became, the more relaxed I was, and the more impressive our dancing. By the time the second chorus came around, we were enjoying ourselves immensely, and she even let herself smile at me. Her smile grew even bigger when I twirled her around, and for a moment I became lost in the small wonder of that smile.

We both began to get a little more smoother in our steps, and I started to worry less about stepping on her feet and more about making her remember this dream. After all, if we failed tonight, there was no second chance.

By this time, the other projections and guests were watching us and cheering us on. It took me a moment to realize that the entire room had crowded in a circle around us, meaning we really _were_ the center of attention. I was almost certain that Cobb and Eames were among them somewhere, but I didn't care one bit. Because I was dancing with the most gifted architect I had ever met, and the one I had fallen head over heals in love with. And judging by the way she was dancing with me, there was still a chance she felt the same.

As the song went through the final chorus, I decided to end things with a bang. After both of us twirled again, I wrapped one hand around her waist and the other behind her shoulder, then dipped her backwards, keeping my eyes locked on hers. She never looked away from my gaze, but gave a little gasp of surprise. The crowd of projections went crazy as I brought her back up again and continued to dance for the remainder of the song.

When the song ended, the crowd cheered wildly, but I payed them no mind. My face was so close to Ariadne's that I was tempted to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. However I restrained myself, knowing my time would come soon enough.

"I didn't know you could dance like that!" She said, breaking the silence between us.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." I replied simply. I felt her shiver beneath my hand. "Care for another one?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." she said with a smile.

We danced the rest of the dream away, to other songs that Cobb and Eames had picked out. I had to say, it was one of the best evenings I had had in a very long time. At one point during a dance, I discretely looked back at the bar and saw the drunk (who looked much more sober now) giving me an amused smile. Over in the shadows of the room was Cobb's figure, and I stared at him for a moment as he watched us with extreme interest, giving me a discrete thumbs up.

Before I knew it, the music had stopped completely after a song, which was the signal that the dream would end soon. I was almost reluctant to go.

"Well Ariadne, I suppose they don't want us dancing anymore, do they?"

"I guess not, it is almost 3 AM." she said regretfully. "I really did loose all tract of time."

"I have an appointment for a job tomorrow that I must be well rested for, so I must be getting some sleep." she sighed.

"Well, anyway, I had a really good time tonight, Arthur."

And then the dream ended.

When I opened my eyes again, Yusuf was already pulling the needle out from Ariadne, being careful not to wake her. We stayed silent as we cleaned up and removed any traces of our work and ourselves. Once we were out of the room and walking towards the car, Yusuf spoke.

"How did it go?"

"It went well," said Cobb nodding. Eames spoke up next.

"Arthur, where in bloody blazes did you learn how to dance like that?" I blushed and smiled slightly as I climbed into the car.

"Yeah Arthur, that was some pretty _smooth_ dancing you did there." Cobb mused, "I honestly didn't know you had it in you!"

"Once again, I miss out on everything!" complained Yusuf, causing the rest of us to laugh. As Cobb began to pull out, Eames rubbed his cheek.

"That was quite the punch you gave me, Arthur. I think I felt that one all the way through to reality."

"Just remember Eames, that's what happens when you mess with anyone - and I do mean ANYone - that I might possibly-"

"Oh shut up, Darling," Eames interrupted, "you know I won't try to steal her away from you; she's not my type. Besides, it would be worth it all just to see the pair of you dance like that again." I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help but picture the image in my head.

"Speaking of which," I started, "that was a very... interesting song choice. Who would have thought that that particular song would have been such a good choice?" There was a strange silence before Cobb spoke up.

"Actually, that wasn't the song Eames and I agreed on. My song was one of the very last ones played." my eyes shot over to a smirking forger.

"I couldn't resist, darling." I suddenly grew furious.

"How could you change the song without Cobb's approval?" I raised my voice angrily.

"Hey it got the job done, didn't it? You got to dance with her for crying out loud! Why must you worry about every blasted detail?" I didn't give him the satisfaction of a response from me. He turned his head towards the window and mumbled something about stupid point-men.

**By the way, the song they were talking about is called Smooth by Santana (hence all the inside jokes lol). I recommend looking it up on Youtube and listening to it for the sake of this chapter!**


	6. The Lake

**First of all, I would just like to thank everyone who has reviewed so far. Your encouraging comments and thoughts about the story are what keep me writing (cheesy, I know, but true). I seriously check at least three times a day to see if any new reviews have shown up, that's how addicted I am. You are all amazing, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!**

**Secondly, I would like to apologize for being so late in updating. I've been crazy busy with college, relocating to a new house, and other issues not limited to writer's block. So without further commentary from me, here's chapter six!**

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><p>That night I found that even though I was exhausted, I couldn't get a wink of sleep. I was too nervous as to whether or not Ariadne knew what we had done, and if she did, how she would react. My mind kept spinning around in circles until finally I got up and watched some late-night TV. Finally, at around three in the morning, I fell asleep.<p>

When morning finally came, I was still feeling tired and stiff, and I was overly anxious about the night before. And later, as I made my way to the warehouse, I was almost dreading seeing her face.

For once, Eames had actually beaten me to the warehouse, and was already engaged in a somewhat deep conversation with Ariadne, though I couldn't quite hear what they were talking about. About a half hour into they day's work, Cobb approached my desk.

"How did it go?" I asked in a hushed whisper.

"She doesn't seam to suspect a thing." I let out the air I had been holding and finally began to relax.

"Are we going to go through with the plan?" I asked with a yawn.

"Yes, but we will be continuing it tonight, actually."

"Why move it up so soon?"

"Because I feel that the sooner the next dream takes place, the better chance of her remembering all three of them and putting the pieces together." I nodded.

"Same time and same place?"

"You got it." Cobb patted me on the shoulder and walked away, leaving me to my wandering - and otherwise distracted - mind.

Once again, I found that it was hard to concentrate on work when Ariadne was so close. I allowed myself a few glances her way, which sent my heart into mini spasms. A couple of times I even caught her glancing at me, then turn away with a smile that was barely visible. I could only assume (hope) she was remembering the dance we shared in last night's dream.

As the hours passed by slowly, it was finally time to call it a day. And after several more hours of waiting impatiently, Cobb's headlights once again glowed onto my walls.

When we arrived at Ariadne's apartment, we easily made our way inside (Yusuf had made a copy of her key while we were in the dream) and began to set things up again. Only myself and Cobb were going to be inside the dream, so Eames had been able to stay home. As we connected ourselves and Ariadne to the PASIV, Yusuf gave us a thumbs up before sending the three of us under.

When I opened my eyes this time, I was met with an array of brilliant colors, mostly consisting of green and blue. Cobb had told me he based this park off of a drawing of Phillipa's, but I was not expecting it to be so wonderful. I smiled in awe as I quickly scanned the area for Ariande, finding myself easily distracted by my surroundings.

I heard a voice behind me, and glanced back to find the object of my pursuits. There was Ariadne, wearing a casual but nice dress shirt and pants. I was a bit surprised but found the look suited her. As I waved and caught a glimpse at my own clothing, I found that I was way more casual as well. Yes I was still wearing a dress shirt, but no tie, no vest, no Italian shoes. I still had on my dressy pants, but my feet were sporting a pair of some slip-on converse or something, and in my opinion they didn't go with the rest of my attire.

Ariadne saw me wave and hurried over. "Hello again, Arthur. Any particular reason you keep popping up in my dreams like this?"

I shrugged. "Coincidence? Or do you just miss me and your subconscious is projecting me because of that?" she blushed and her cheeks turned a shade of pink that was similar to her lips.

"I guess its because I haven't seen the team in so long that they've been on my mind lately."

I grew nervous. Did that mean she had seem Eames or Cobb in the previous dream? I swallowed. "Have any of the others shown up in your dreams these past few days?" She thought for a moment, and I held my breath.

"No, just you." I instantly relaxed.

"Then you have been missing me!" This made her laugh, and that in turn brought a cheeky smile to my face. I had forgotten how much I missed her laugh. I caught a glimpse of a nice hill with a lake-side view, and immediately remembered the instructions that Cobb had given. I smiled and held out my hand to Ariandne. "Care to join me by the lake?" I knew when I saw her shy smile appear that my gentlemanly ways had worked again.

"Sure." she answered as she reached for my hand. I closed my fingers around hers, and that simple movement made my heart melt. We made our way to a secluded area where we could still watch the scattered fishing boats and rouge swimmers. I was content to stay there with her forever, but I had a job to do. _Soon_, I reminded myself, _soon this can become a reality instead of a dream._

"I didn't used to be so stiff and standoffish." I started. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ariadne's eyes on me, urging me to go on, so I did since I had her attention. "I used to be very out going, always out doing something with my friends and having fun. Believe it or not, at one point I didn't even care about school even though I was very good." I forced a chuckle at the irony, though I wasn't really amused. I just needed to do something to calm myself.

"What happened?" Her voice was small and hesitant, almost afraid to ask. I turned to her, my stoic face regarding her curiously before responding.

"I fell in love."

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><p><strong>Oohh, bit of a cliffhanger ending! :D<strong>


	7. The Lake, Part 2

**Thank you all for being patient with me in uploading this. You're kind consideration and tolerance of such behavior is duly noted and appreciated! Honestly, it's been forever since I've even watched Inception. And obviously, other things have taken higher priority, and quite honestly, I forgot about this story. But I've been getting a few nice emails saying that people have added this to their favorites/watches, and after another kind review, I've decided to update this again. And since I last updated my writing skills have improved tremendously, as I've been working on an original novel. Unfortunately, I believe my original notes for this story are gone after some technical difficulties, but I still know what needs to happen. So expect that this will be updated a little more regularly from now on! Thank you for staying with me during my hiatus!**

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Inception. Okay?**

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><p>She stared at me in disbelief as if I had just informed her that aliens and extra-terrestrial life really did exist. Her eyes grew wide, and she was practically begging for me to continue.<p>

"You.. fell in love?" she choked out. There was a peculiar tone in her voice that I couldn't quite place, and it unsettled me. Nevertheless, I nodded and somehow found my voice.

"Her name was Miranda."

Ariadne's lips pursed together in a way I couldn't quite describe. Was it surprise that I had never mentioned a girlfriend before? But the other part of me could see the obvious disappointment in her eyes, as well as a hint of... was it jealousy I saw? I decided to put it aside for now. I had to get this off my chest while I had the chance to do so.

"I had just graduated from college when I met her. She had also just graduated and was hoping to become a schoolteacher. We started to spend a lot of time together, and eventually started dating." I paused as the memories came back to me in a sudden rush. This was the reason Cobb was the architect of this dream and kept things under control. I would have been a risk to the dream. As it was, I was having a hard enough time trying to keep my expression neutral as the memories stirred up unpleasant emotions.

As if sensing my uneasiness, Ariadne softened her gaze. "What happened to her?"

I swallowed hard. "There was a job that went horribly wrong. The mark found out that he had been extracted from, and wanted his revenge. Miranda didn't know about my life as a point man working in the field of dream extraction and inception. I wanted to keep her safe, and there was only one way to keep her safe. So I told her we needed a break. It broke both of our hearts, but that wasn't even the worst part."

I paused and tried to collect my thoughts and regain composure. I could easily see Ariadne's anxiousness as she waited patiently for me to continue. She stayed silent and gave me time to think. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"She got upset at the prospect of a break and stormed out of my apartment." I fought to keep control of my voice, which was becoming increasingly harder. "She got into her car and drove away, somewhere to think and sort out her thoughts I guess. But she never made it; her car was rigged with a powerful explosive."

I was keeping as calm as can be expected, which meant I was slowly losing my grip on the little control I had started with. Ariadne's gasp didn't register in my head until sometime later.

"It killed her instantly as soon as the car reached 45 miles per hour. I thought I was keeping her safe, but I was already too late. Instead of helping her I ended up hurting her in the worst way possible."

I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eyes, so I settled for staring at the lake. There were a few fishing boats, the laughter of children playing in the water, and here I was spilling my deepest feelings and pouring out the deeply rooted contents of my heart. How could I have become such a man?

My self-destruction was interrupted by Ariadne's soft hands wrapping themselves around my own. I allowed myself a smile and instantly relaxed some.

"That's why I'm always so afraid of letting people in." I explained in a voice that was now surprisingly firm. "I'm always so afraid I'd lose them, and then I'd never forgive myself."

It was quiet between us for several moments. After a few minutes, I heard Ariadne sigh as she moved to speak. "But you are forgetting something, Arthur. There's a huge difference between Miranda and me."

I turned and regarded her curiously. "And what might that be?"

She looked up at me with those enormous brown eyes and I could have sworn that my heart stopped. "I'm an architect who already knows about dream-sharing."

I smiled and let out a controlled chuckle at her logic. Things could be going horribly wrong and yet she'd still look at life with the glass half-full. That was one thing about people that, in all my years as a point man, I could never understand. Why was it that after tragedy upon tragedy a person could still find something to be thankful for? I must have been considering this fact for too long and had drifted off into my own subconscious, because when I did come around, Ariadne was staring at me strangely and asking if I was feeling okay.

We stayed seated next to one another comfortably and in a non-awkward silence. I eventually made small talk, pointing out the different ducks and other living things on the water, while at the same time looking for Cobb's sign that the dream would be ending soon. While I never actually saw Cobb in this dream, I could feel his presence. He was around here somewhere, and soon after sensing this, I felt a small inkling of regret that this afternoon, even though it was all in my subconscious, was ending so soon.

In order to keep the dream seeming realistic, I tried to keep up the casual conversation that we had going before. But before I knew it, I was opening my eyes and awakening from the dream.

Cobb pulled me aside as we were leaving. "You alright?"

I supposed my face was still reflecting some of my emotions from my confession of my past. I nodded instead of speaking, afraid my voice would do more damage. But still, I was proud of myself for being able to tell Ariadne that story. The hardest part of this inception was over, and with only one more dream to go, it wouldn't be long until she finally knew the truth.


	8. The Gift

**I take full responsibility for not uploading in over a year. I hate leaving things unfinished and I can't believe I did that with this story. I will say that I have continued to write anyway, so I think I'm even better now. Please forgive me with this update?**

The second dream was incredibly taxing on my physical as well as emotional strength, so I wasn't surprised to find my eyelids closing on me during the ride back to the warehouse. I was already half asleep when myself and the rest of the team parted ways, and it was just minutes after my head hit the pillow when I fell into a dream filled sleep.  
>It was one of the first real dreams I had had in months. Not surprisingly, Ariadne was involved even though it was just briefly. But it appeared to be so real that I woke up at one point with my totem in hand to make sure it wasn't. Nevertheless, it was a very pleasurable fantasy, and it took me a long time to get back to sleep.<br>I was nervous about going into work the next day, more so than I had been with the previous dreams. I knew this last one was going to be tricky to say the least. It involved breaking one of Cobb's hard and fast rules in the extraction business. The fact that he was willing to break this rule for the sake of my personal life just showed how lucky I was to know the man. Furthermore, it was without a doubt the breaking out of this entire mission. The last dream may have been the most emotionally upsetting, but this one would be the deciding factor in the outcome.

I arrived at the warehouse before anyone else, even Cobb. It was so early that the sun hadn't even appeared in the sky, so it would be a long wait for anyone else to show up. This was fine with me, since I needed to prepare myself as much as I could.

Since this entire operation was being done without Ariadne's knowledge, we were forced to be discrete in how we hid and worked on the mission. All of my paperwork was hidden in a secret compartment in my file cabinet that even Cobb was unaware of. Seeing that I was the only one, I took this time to familiarize myself with its contents, though if I was honest with myself, I didn't really _need _to.

I reviewed the layouts and memorized the locations of where other members of the team would be located. There were personalized, handwritten notes from each of the other team members about their personal observations that could be of importance. But none of this made me any less of a nervous wreck.

"You're here early today," a voice broke the silence. I had become so absorbed in my work that I hadn't even noticed Cobb entering the warehouse. Had I been working that long already?

"Yes," I finally replied. "I wanted to make sure I was fully prepared."

Cobb nodded, but did not appear to be fully convinced. "You getting nervous?"

I shook my head slowly. "Not really. It's no different from any other job."

"It is because it involves you personally," Cobb replied with a smile. "Not that I'm worried, because I know how focused you get no matter what. But still, it's not good to psych yourself out too much. It's not good for the brain. Quite exhausting, trust me. Maybe you should stay home."

"You know I can't do that," I protested. "I have too much work to do."

Cobb gave me a pointed stare. "Arthur, you've finished your work already."

I sighed. He knew me too well sometimes. But I suppose that is what comes from being friends for so many years.

"If I know you at all, which I do, you're probably just going to review the information you have again and again until you can recite it from memory forwards and backwards, am I right?" I didn't even give him the pleasure of an answer. He knew it was true without having to ask. Cobb patted me on the shoulder before turned to his own desk, apparently giving up on convincing me go back to my apartment. So I went about my business as usual.

The clock hands slowly ticked by, and it only seemed like minutes instead of hours when everyone else appeared. More ticking of the hands. Miraculously, I had even managed to avoid taking chance glances at Ariadne today as I was so engrossed in my studies. In fact, one might even say that I was, in a way, comatose to my surroundings. It wasn't until I felt a hand on my shoulder did I even look up.

"Arthur," Eames crooned, "even I can tell you are working much too hard." He was smiling, but his voice was lowered, emphasizing the seriousness of his words. "We're going to need you in tip-top shape, you know. Come on, I'll even drive you to your apartment."

"What about my car?"

"I'm sure Cobb can drop it off for you later."

"Eames, this really isn't—" I tried to say, but he of course wasn't putting up with my protests today. So I had no choice but to go along with him.

The drive, of course, was filled with nothing but unbearable silence. At least it was for the first several minutes, until Eames could no longer handle it anymore.

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to loosen up and have a bit of fun when you aren't working," he said at last.

"Your definition of fun and mine have completely different meanings."

He chuckled. "True, but that doesn't mean I'm not right."

"Why did I even let you talk me into leaving early?" I checked my watch and nearly choked at the time. "Eames! It's only half past noon! You can't possibly expect me to—"

"Don't they say absence makes the heart grow fonder?" he asked with a sly smile.

The question was surprising enough for me to pause. I thought hard about what this meant. "... Is this your way of... _helping_ me out, Eames?"

His smile was all the reassurance I needed. "Consider it my little gift to you both."

Before another word could be spoken, Eames pulled up outside my apartment. I was just getting out of the car when I noticed something placed on the doormat. A very suggestively shaped package.

"Eames, what is that."

"What is what?"

"That bottle of wine on my doormat. You know I don't drink."

He just grinned. "Like I said, consider it my gift. And just because you don't drink like me doesn't mean you don't drink. After all, we have very different definitions of the word, don't we?"

His cocky smile was plastered all across his face. I of course, stood there, mouth agape, completely at a loss for words. Using my own words against me was not something I had expected Eames to attempt. With a single wave of his hand, Eames drove away while I was still standing there on the curb.

As I made my way to the apartment, I eyed the bottle. Eames had been right of course that I didn't _drink _like him, but it was not very often that I took pleasure in consuming alcoholic beverages such as fine wines. After glancing over my shoulder to make sure Eames hadn't stopped up ahead to watch me, I bent and picked up the bottle and walked inside.

I discovered upon unwrapping it that this was not an ordinary bottle of wine. It was very old, very rare, and very expensive. He must have paid top dollar for it. Knowing that this was a very special bottle, I eagerly found a glass and poured a glass for myself. It tasted just as good as it looked, which was exquisite. Eames must have gone to a lot of trouble to get this, and it was no small matter either that he had wasted such a wine on me, a man who hardly ever drinks. So I couldn't help but laugh and say aloud to myself, "Eames, you never cease to amaze me."


End file.
